|
|
A reader posted a review at 2009-04-08 09:58:54.
(Language: English)
End-of- 21st century Tokyo.
Three interconnected lives.
The story.
"Colin Laney is here looking for work. He is an intuitive fisher for patterns of information, the "signature" an individual creates simply by going about the business of living. But Laney knows how to sift for the dangerous bits. Which makes him useful - to certain people.
Chia McKenzie is here on a rescue mission. She's fourteen. Her idol is the singer Rez, of the band Lo/Rez. When the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club decided that he might be in trouble in Tokyo, they sent Chia to check it out.
Rei Toei is the idoru - the beautiful, entirely virtual media star adored by all Japan. Rez has declared that he will marry her. This is the rumor that has brought Chia to Tokyo. True or not, the idoru and the powerful interests surrounding her are enough to put all their lives in danger."
That's basically the plot. If you think that sounds interesting you're going to love it. If that's not your kind of book, don't bother. But the book was not just about the plot. Gibson said that Colin Laney's ability to "identify nodal points" and find patterns in seemingly non-related data is similar to the author's own ability to "predict" the future based on the present. "Laney’s node-spotter function is some sort of metaphor for whatever it is that I actually do. There are bits of the literal future right here, right now, if you know how to look for them. Although I can’t tell you how; it’s a non-rational process." Now that is what I loved most about Idoru. Every single thing that happens in this book, even all the things that don't happen, that merely exist, that just are - the bits and pieces that constitute this world - are so believable. Every new element of this universe Gibson has created feels instantly real. You will exclaim, over and over "But of course the future's going to be like this!" And because the future in this book is not so distant - merely at the end of the present century - you can identify along with Gibson the first signs of what is to come in the world around you. It's not something imaginary, it's here already. This is not some figment of one brilliant/lunatic author's imagination - this must be how things will be for our children's children, right? Loved the story, loved the characters and loved the technology. There are also many popular culture references, which are always a plus in my book. (For example, the protagonist goes to a Franz Kafka-themed club, where each room is decorated according to a different story of Kafka's) Only two little warnings if you plan on reading Idoru. One: some paragraphs might be tricky at first, usually because you're not familiar with the equipment introduced or with the invented terms for the new technologies. Go back to them if necessary, don't skip things or you might miss out on important story elements. Two: a fascinating part of the book was, for me, the description of the new gadgets and apparatuses, products of the scientific progress that has been achieved in the last decades of the century; how computers will look in the near-future, what will they be able to do, how software will evolve, how the music industry or the different companies will use this technology, how advertisements will be made, etcetera. For me, being a music freak, writing for a music blog online, not being able to live without my laptop, loving to try out new software, constantly downloading the latest updates for pc programs, and appreciating pop culture references, this book combined all my interests. Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. If you have no interest in all these things mentioned, then you're probably not going to love the book. You might appreciate the writer's talent or might enjoy the plot twists or (what look like, but don't feel like) sci-fi elements, but I don't think you're going to love it. I described it the best I could. Now just ask yourself: are you a computer/music nerd?
Updated to
Was this review helpful?
Yes (0)
No (0)
|
Buy from Amazon
